The next leader of Iraq -- after the election -- will be one of the following:

--Abdul-Aziz AL-HAKIM, a Shia cleric and leader of the Iranian-backed Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri)
--Adel Abd AL-MAHDI, the current finance minister and Sciri member
--Ibrahim AL-JAAFARI, the current vice president and head of the Shia Dawa party.

THE FACE OF SADDAM HUSSEIN'S ELECTED REPLACEMENT (Not so simple-looking)

All are religious Shias/Shiites -- the brand of Islam they have in Iran (remember the Iranian Revolution, oil shock, student seizure of the US Embassy and hostages?).

None is simple-looking like this, but the next leader is apt to be a man with a long white beard and robe.

The photo is revealing in a way: Whoever wins WILL DEPEND ON PRESIDENT DUBYA BUSH TO FIGHT THEIR CIVIL WAR with the rival Muslims, the Sunnis -- rulers of the Sunni Trangle, aka Triangle of Death.

All this will result in a thriving ex-im business for years -- in bodies, American bodies: imported on troop transports, exported in body bags (excuse me, Barbara Bush, for troubling your beautiful 'mind' -- yes, I did place the quotes in the right place).

One hopes the elected Shia government is graceful and grateful in victory and does not seek revenge on the Sunnis, who ran the Baathist Party regime of Saddam Hussein and are running the current armed resistance. One can hope for anything.

The US will get what it went in for: bases in Iraq. They will be needed so we can fight, as proxy for the Shias, their civil war. If only Abraham Lincoln -- or even the "red states" -- had had a proxy to fight our civil war, it would not have been our most costly in terms of lives, over 1 million fighters, all American.

The US also will get oil priced in dollars, instead of euros. Well, we won't actually get the oil and gas -- most of ours comes from North America. But Euroland will get the Iraqi oil -- priced in dollars, so good for our self-esteem. And that kind of oil, priced in dollars, soon might become hard to come by.

We have at least removed the execrable Saddam Hussein from power. However, it's a little like renovating your home or business with kerosene, otherwise known as "ethnic" lightning. And that, too, is revealing if you decipher it.